The Electro 4 HP 73-Note Weighted Hammer-Action Keyboard with USB offers a wide range of classic keyboard sounds and performance-friendly features. Like its predecessors, it's focused on electromechanical keyboards like organs, electric pianos, and clavinets, but also offers the ability load additional sounds from Nord's Piano and Sample libraries. You can even add your own samples.

In an effort to make the Electro 4 HP's organ sounds as realistic as possible, Nord has incorporated the same B3 tone-wheel organ engine from its flagship C2D organ. Furthermore, they have included a simulation of the 122 cabinet that has been designed to reproduce the sound of a vintage rotary-speaker. Vox and Farfisa organ simulations are included as well.

The piano section contains 380 MB of sounds from the Nord Piano Library, including grand, upright, and electric pianos, along with harpsichords and clavinets. Besides the preloaded sounds, the entire library is included in the box on a DVD, so you can load in more of your favorite sounds.

The Electro 4 HP also features 128 MB of memory dedicated to the Nord Sample Library. You can download and access the Nord Sample Library, which contains Mellotron and Chamberlin samples, plus third-party sounds from Sonic Reality, Precision Sound, Kirk Hunter Studios, and more. To help you manage your sounds, you can download the free Nord Sound Manager (Mac/Win), a software librarian for Nord keyboards that allows you to drag and drop sounds into your Electro 4 HP, and organize and backup the sounds in the keyboard.

Nord has also augmented the effects section with the addition of a stereo delay featuring a Tap Tempo button and a Ping-Pong mode. The pan, tremolo, auto-wah, phaser, flanger, chorus, amp-simulation, compressor and reverb effects all were brought over from the Electro 3. The Electro 4 HP is outfitted with a USB port, so it can be used as a MIDI controller. It has 73 weighted hammer action piano keys designed to work well with electric and acoustic piano sounds, although the High Trigger-point mode was implemented specifically for organ playing. In keeping with Nord's design philosophy of providing simple and intuitive user interfaces on its keyboards, the Electro 4 HP has dedicated knobs and buttons that control most of its functions. To further simplify its operation for live performance, the functions that are only accessible via menu are printed out on the panel so that you can find them quickly.

Performers will also appreciate that there are now 4 Live memory locations available (as opposed to 1 on the Nord Electro 3), as well as 4 banks of 32 patches. The Electro 4 HP also features 4 selectable dynamic response curves for customizing the keyboard response to your playing style.

B3 Tone Wheel Simulation from Flagship Nord C2DDigital simulation of the classic B3 mechanical tone wheel organ. Designed to model the subtle nuances of the original B3 sound including the clicking sound of the keys. It is the same engine found in Nord's flagship C2D organ

Vox and Farfisa Organ SimulationsIncludes simulations designed for realistic reproduction of the transistor-based Vox Continental II combo organ and the distinct "buzzy" sound of the Farfisa Compact DeLuxe organ

122 Rotary Speaker SimulationFeatures simulations of the vintage 122 speaker cabinet being captured at normal and close microphone distance ranges as well as an overdrive simulation

Nord Piano LibraryComes loaded with a selection of sounds from the Nord Piano Library containing Grand, Upright and Electrical Pianos, Clavinet and Harpsichords. The entire Nord Piano Library is included on DVDs and new additions can be downloaded free on the Nord Piano Library page

Nord Sample LibraryThe Nord Sample library is a database of additional sounds such as Mellotron and Chamberlin simulations. The library can be found on the Nord website and is updated on a regular basis. The existing library and all future updates can be downloaded for free and used with the Electro 4 HP

Sample EditorThe included Nord Sample Editor makes it possible to add any sound you want to your Electro 4 HP. The editor can use audio files in the .wav format and has tools that allow you to map samples across the keyboard or create loops

Extended Control Pedal SupportControl pedal support expanded from Electro 3 to include the Yamaha FC7, Roland EV-7, Roland EV-5, Korg EXP2 and Korg XVP10. Control pedals can be used to control rotor speed and other expressions